WHORE OF BABYLON, a solo project out of Australia, deliver an incredibly harsh and jarring demo in "Chapter I: Devotion, Adoration, Invocation".  I must be completely honest; I had no idea what was really happening to me while listening to this album. It felt as though I was being dragged into a deep dark hole that I could not crawl out of. If the aim of WHORE OF BABYLON is to completely render your senses with a depressing and helpless feeling, then "Chapter I: Devotion, Adoration, Invocation" completely nails that.

The strong dissonant melodies that are invoked on this album are completely unrelenting. The opening track," Ἑκάτη" kicks off the album, but starts in a quiet and ominous way. The track begins with the sounds of what seems to be a sort of airplane is heard followed by a screeching sound that messes with the senses. An incredibly odd opening that leads into the track that presents the feeling for the rest of the album. "Saba- Azhaka" starts immediately with some deep and grungy vocals that are accompanied by some backing dissonant guitar strikes and slow-paced drumming. The drumming picks up speed at certain intervals, which completely throws off what sort of melody, the song was attempting to create. This theme is carried on throughout the entirety of the album, which if you like complete random song structure, you'll absolutely love this album.

The next track on the album, "Fal'Zhardum-Djinn", delivers a pretty impressive guitar solo at the start of the track, but immediately delves back into the dissonant guitar strikes. Placing a guitar solo in the opening of a track is just completely odd. But I think that is where this album shines, in its ability to completely throw off whoever listens to it. "Nchaund-Zel" starts and delivers completely on the feeling of being dragged into a hole, as the guitar melody delivers that exact sound, or at least that is what I hear. The final track, "Manifestation I: Distillation of Zosimos" ends the demo with some atmospheric sounding light guitar and whispering that spans the entirety of the track. Giving off the final creepy feeling.

At a whopping 12:15 time frame, it was easy to give the album a track-by-track nod. I have no clue what I was listening to really, but it made me feel incredibly creeped out. Definitely not something I could or would listen to on any given day but if harsh, dissonant, and completely random structured songs are what drive you, and then listen to this album.<